The Auburn University sociologist who has been accused of offering athletes and other students bogus courses to improve their grades and graduation rates has finally spoken out in his own defense. Thomas Petee, interim chairman of the department, handed out high grades to football players in courses that required no attendance and little work, according to a New York Times article two weeks ago (The Chronicle, July 14).

In his first public comments since then, Mr. Petee told The Auburn Villager, a local weekly newspaper that’s not online, that the huge number of “directed reading” courses he offered to athletes reflected a staffing scarcity in the department, not an attempt to give the football players a free ride, according to an article in today’s Huntsville Times.